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“Collateral relatives” – now there’s a thing. This week’s theme for #52Ancestors is ‘branching out’.

I have explored my direct ancestors, ie parents, grandparents, and so on. I’ve got a fair way back for some branches, and not done so well for others. I’ve been given a couple of sets of research carried out by other people – one for my maternal grandmother’s family (TITTERINGTON originating from Waddington and surrounding area in the Ribble Valley) and one for my paternal grandfather’s family (BENNETT/COAD originating from Cornwall). I’ve no reason to doubt the accuracy of these pieces of research, but I do want to ‘prove’ it for myself.

Having come upon the usual brick walls and hurdles, I often start drifting into the ‘breadth’ of my tree. I’ve enjoyed sorting out the correct parents and step-parents for my paternal grandfather’s family (BENNETT), and that “a-ha!” moment – his father married twice – and have a similar challenge further back on my paternal grandmother’s side (SANDERSON) (this one is proving more tricky to sort out).

I also want to get to grips with my maternal grandfather’s mother’s family (HEY – she married a BOTTOMLEY). In some ways the further back you go the easier it should be. The families lived in a small village in Calderdale, reasonably local to me. However, later generations moved around the country – my grandfather’s family moved to Nottingham at one point (and I’ve recently found out from the 1921 census that they lived in Fleetwood for a while). One branch of his mother’s family moved to Huddersfield and another to the north east. I think I’m nearly there with the Huddersfield side, but not with the north east contingent. Time to meet up with my mum’s cousin and ask her what she knows, and hopefully to get in touch with the Huddersfield branch (who I haven’t seen for about 30 years).

Although both surnames are relatively uncommon, there were a lot of them in their local area at one point – so making sure you’re ‘claiming’ the correct people is important. I am lucky to have inherited a booklet about the building of Rishworth Congregational Chapel / Parrock Nook Congregational Church, which includes mention of some of the BOTTOMLEY family, including John Ernest BOTTOMLEY who my mum had fond memories of visiting as a child when her dad would drive them up from Rochdale to Rishworth in his electric van, crossing Baitings Reservoir on the old bridge which can now only be seen when the water is very low. I’ve found names on gravestones at another church in Rishworth (Baptist), and suggestions that baptisms took place at St Bartholomew’s – something else to investigate.

The old bridge at Baitings Reservoir (Sep 2018) (c) Diane E Bennett

The BOTTOMLEY family also seem to have had some connection to the Ripponden Commercial Company, mentioned in an old will my great aunts held. I need to dig it out and see exactly what it said, and whose will it was! This is something that’s been a “when I get time” branch for many years – it may turn out not to add a great deal to my family tree, but I’m hoping will be interesting purely to find out more about the lives of my ancestors.

It’s easy to get dragged off the main ‘research question of the day’ to explore a side branch of your tree – for curiosity, because someone has mentioned something of interest, or purely because you like things to be ‘complete’ (top tip – decide what ‘complete’ means for you early on in your research and set yourself some parameters if you don’t want to suddenly find yourself exploring the in-laws of the step-family of your 3rd cousin six times removed!).